Stories from Friday, June 30, 2017

The owners of Bronze Owl Brewing are moving their Poplar Bluff micro-brewery from a hobby location into a downtown storefront. The location was chosen after polling fans of their beer at events, the men said Thursday night at a Turnaround Downtown community meeting...

The Poplar Bluff R-1 Board of Education approved a deficit budget for the 2017-18 fiscal year Thursday, but according to Superintendent of Finance Rod Priest, the excess spending will not negatively impact the district. Priest said because legislators have vowed to fully-fund the formula, his calculations are based on those numbers. However, some educators are skeptical lawmakers will stand by their word...

NEELYVILLE, Mo. -- Neelyville school board members learned Thursday night that a bump in federal money may allow the district's budget to be in the black for 2017-2018. The district, according to Superintendent Brad Hagood, deficient spent by about $182,000 for the current year due to expenses, such as a new roof for the gymnasium, security cameras and a classroom addition, which were paid for out of its capital projects fund...

At 37 years old, Joyce Ingle, a wife and mother of two, decided to join the U.S. Navy Reserves simply, she said, to "try a new career." "It was December 1982," said Ingle, who is now 71. "My kids were teenagers and their dad had already been in the Navy for several years. He traveled overseas a lot with the squadron and I wanted to do the same thing."...

By DAVID SILVERBERG A bell rings in a United States military command center deep inside a southern Pennsylvania mountain. Everyone must leave an office in Building E except one man -- Greg Kirk, a U.S. Air Force encryption specialist with a top-secret clearance...

Growing up in a military family, Kacey Proctor always has felt a sense of duty about serving his country. As a member of the Missouri Army National Guard, Proctor recently was told he will deploy this fall to the Middle East, where he is expected to serve for a year...

The 4th annual PB Christian Soccer Camp was nothing short of a "save" earlier this month. With forecasts that week reflecting 80-90 percent chance of showers, campers in the triple digits and a host of last minute sick coaches, camp management was praying for a miracle while preparing to play ball in the rain. At the last moment, you guessed it, Jesus saved camp!...

To the Editor A look at the Illinois Budget Mess . . . in the July 21st . . . DAILY AMERICAN REPUBLIC . . . proves what I have been reading the last few months. Almost 2000 yrs. ago, Scottish professor Alexander Fraser Tytler wrote these words about the Athenian Republic, which had fallen more than 2 thousand years earlier...

To the Editor, Mr. Roger Burton: In writing your "Rattle Battle," did you ever consider that you should have turned your car around and gone back to St. Louis? Arnolee Chatman Kearbey Poplar Bluff, Mo.

The U.S. Navy describes the fight for Leyte Gulf as the last of the great sea battles. There is no rival in naval history, they say, both from the sheer destruction to the fact that every known weapon of naval war, except mines, was used. Seventeen-year-old Robert Thacker had been on board the USS White Plains less than two months when it became the target of Japanese warships Oct. ...

Michigan is set to become the 26TH American state to join the federal government in criminalizing female genital mutilation, even as two Detroit area doctors and one of their wives await trial for inflicting the procedure on a number of young girls. FGM, which is common in some parts of Africa and the Middle East, involves using a razor to remove all or part of a girl's clitoris and parts of the vulva...

Norma Jean Muller died Monday June 26, 2017 at Belleville Ill. Memorial Hospital. Memorial Service will be held at 11 a.m., Sunday, at Black Creek Cemetery, Poplar Bluff. Paid

Missouri University of Science and Technology announces the area students who made the honor list for the Spring 2017 semester. They include: Fisk, Bradley Parks, aerospace engineering, senior Poplar Bluff, Dylan Timothy Barker, petroleum engineering, senior; Justin Glenn Miller, engineering , junior; John Luke Pelton, environmental engineering, senior; Peyton Aileen Robertson, psychology, junior; and George Charon Ward, computer science, junior...

Missouri Bears Youth Organization for boys and girls is now accepting tax deductible donations at Grammies Thrift Store, 201 S. Main St. Call 609-2644 for more information or pickup.

The grand finale for Downtown Poplar Bluff's Independence Day celebration will be the Briggs & Stratton's annual fireworks display, which lights up the sky over Clinton Park beginning at approximately 9 p.m. July 4. "I want to thank Briggs and Stratton for its continued support for our fireworks display," said Jerrica Fox, Downtown Poplar Bluff Inc. executive director. "Briggs & Stratton has for many years sponsored the fireworks display. Their sponsorship is greatly appreciated."...

James "Dale" Pierce, 77, of Poplar Bluff, Mo., died Friday, June 30, 2017, at his home. Arrangements are pending with White-Sanders Funeral Home in Fisk, Mo.